AGP voltage

[belgarath16]

I have an Epox EP-4BEA mobo that supports AGP 1-4x in 1.5v only. I wanted to install a GeForce2 MX400, but nowhere can I find the voltage specs for this card. The MCH on the board will prevent booting if the AGP requires 3.3v to protect the board from releasing it's smoke.

Question: does anyone know what voltage this card requires?

(BPB said he was running out of questions to answer )

[BipolarBill]

You bastid!

Trial and error, dudesky.

[Aarmenaa]

Most AGP cards are now 3.3 volts. I have an old Pentium II motherboard that only did 1.5 volts. It would boot just fine, but once you were in a game, it was toast. Make dead sure that the card works under all circumstances before you keep it. Other than that, trial and error is as good a strategy as any.

-Aarmenaa

[NDD]

Exactly the opposite of what Aarmenaa said

Most newer cards (at least after GeForce2) are 1.5v. "Old" ones, like Voodoo3, are 3.3v.

You GeForce2 MX400 will work fine. It's 1.5v.
Good luck

[Larry Endebrock]

ND, are all GeForce 2 cards 1.5v even if they are 2x/4x and not only 4x?
My problems is similar to the original post/question in that I have a new Gigabyte 81EX mobo that will work only with a 4x AGP card which is 1.5v (not 3.3v as I understand the older 2x cards use).
I purchased an HIS Graphic Master GeForce2 4MX 64MB AGP card which I understood was only 4x (thinking all 4x cards work on only 1.5v). But, it turned out this card is both 2x/4x and I am unable to find any tech detail which tell me what the operating voltage is. Gigabyte warns in several places not to use a 2x/4x card that operates on 3.3v because doing so will burn out the mobo. Hence, my concern.

thanks

[belgarath16]

Thanks ND....the mobo manual says it will protect itself if a 3.3v is installed, but you know how that goes!

Appreciate the help people!

[Aarmenaa]

That's not what the guys at Diamond/S3 told me! I was having problems with a Viper II Z200, so I called Diamond. They said that most cards, including theirs, are 3.3 volts, and that my motherboard wasn't coughing up the juice. They said I needed a new motherboard would supply the correct voltage. So, I went and got a new Thunderbird and MB, and low and behold it worked. I dunno...maybe the truth changed when I wasn't looking-sorry about the misinformation!

-aarmenaa

[Peter M]

GNNNNN ... stop guessing folks, this is too dangerous a subject to give advice if you don't REALLY know what you're talking about.

For a start, ALL AGP cards are 3.3V on their supply voltage rail. They ever have been.

The 1.5V vs 3.3V thing is on the AGP bus signal lines. AGP 1x and 2x use 3.3V signalling, while AGP 4x uses 1.5V there.

Now AGP slots and cards are mechanically designed to fit only those combinations that are electrically compatible ... lookee here

http://mirror.ati.com/support/faq/agpchart.html

... and this is where the trouble starts.

Some cards have been coded "universal" although in reality they are 1x/2x-only (see the Fury MAXX on that ATi page). These will physically fit a 4x-only mainboard, but after poweron smoke will arise unless the mainboard has special circuitry to prevent that. Those cards are really hard to identify, you'd have to check whether the graphics chip used on them is 4x capable at all.

regards, Peter

[grimfandango]

Originally posted by Larry Endebrock
ND, are all GeForce 2 cards 1.5v even if they are 2x/4x and not only 4x?
My problems is similar to the original post/question in that I have a new Gigabyte 81EX mobo that will work only with a 4x AGP card which is 1.5v (not 3.3v as I understand the older 2x cards use).
I purchased an HIS Graphic Master GeForce2 4MX 64MB AGP card which I understood was only 4x (thinking all 4x cards work on only 1.5v). But, it turned out this card is both 2x/4x and I am unable to find any tech detail which tell me what the operating voltage is. Gigabyte warns in several places not to use a 2x/4x card that operates on 3.3v because doing so will burn out the mobo. Hence, my concern.

thanks

In my experience(I maybe wrong) the Gf2 series will work on both 1.5 and 3.3!!

MY ol mx200 worked fine in my 440bx chipset mobo ehich had an 3.3v agp slot or AGP1.0 slot!

[belgarath16]

Okay....

ND, many thanks...the card is AGP 2.0 (2x\4x) @ 1.5v.

Peter Missel...that was an excellent and informative link on AGP slots\versions, and it stands that my combo should work fine.

I think the reason the board's manual stresses 1.5v ONLY is because they used a Universal AGP slot, but is based on the i845 chipset which requires 1.5v. (Epox EP-4BEAV)

So you could install any AGP card in the slot, even the older cards that operate on a 3.3v bus, AGP 1.0, as the {eVil deToNaTor}stated.

Makes me wonder why this info is not on nVidias site.

Thanks to all...another factoid to stick in non-volitile memory!

[Peter M]

Originally posted by belgarath16
I think the reason the board's manual stresses 1.5v ONLY is because they used a Universal AGP slot, but is based on the i845 chipset which requires 1.5v. (Epox EP-4BEAV)

[/B]

*slaps forehead* I can't believe a manufacturer like Epox making SUCH a mistake ...

regards, Peter

[Larry Endebrock]

Thanks to all, especially Peter, for the information. I believe I understand the situation better now. I also have to wonder at why the Gigabyte board has the universal slot but at least they warned me, otherwise I would have put in the AGP card I was happy with in the mobo I am replacing and ended up destroying my new beaut toy!!

Thanks again,

larry

[Ammok]

I got "fuzzyLogic" with my msi mobo and it lets me "tweak" the voltage, My G2-400mx is now running at 1.6 volts as i am having a spot of bother with 3d2001 which keeps crashing for some reason beyond my ken. Will pop it up to 1.7 if the situation don't change.

[belgarath16]

Video Card Tweaking???

[Ammok]

Not really, I got rivatuner to tweak the card speeds, this program works with msi boards and allows you to chage the cpu,memory and agp line voltages supplkied to these devices. Good fun if a little dangerous.